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They say crypto rapidly ages you. Look no further for proof than the $ETH chart.
More specifically, the $ETH chart in comparison to Intel stock. Their trajectories share an uncanny resemblance.
The chart below plots the price of $ETH in pink against Intel stock in blue but with caveats:
- INTC is set over the past 50 years (it went public in 1971) on weekly intervals.
- $ETH is set over the past seven years on daily intervals.
- $ETH is advanced by around two and a half years — so it starts in Jan 2018 rather than August 2015.
As you can see, $ETH has done almost exactly what Intel stock has achieved, just seven times as quickly.
Comparing cryptocurrencies and stocks doesn’t make a lot of sense. Ethereum is not a business in the same way that Intel is.
Ethereum is a decentralized network that sells blockspace to apps and other protocols that service users in some way — far from a chipmaker with factories, employees, board members and CEOs.
Still, I can’t help but draw similarities between Ethereum and Intel, at least in terms of narrative arcs.
Top brain Vitalik Buterin and the non-profit Ethereum Foundation (EF) he leads are still under fire for supposedly misaligning themselves with the modern crypto community — prioritizing infrastructure over exciting new apps that properly accrue value to $ETH.
That disconnect has contributed to massively increased market and mindshare for rival Solana and a $ETH/BTC ratio at four-year lows.
Intel’s board meanwhile ousted its CEO Pat Gelsinger in December over concerns that he’d failed to capitalize on the AI boom and could no longer stage a comeback against Nvidia.
Intel had long been the most valuable US chipmaker until Nvidia flipped its stock in mid-2020. Many tip SOL to potentially flip $ETH somewhere down the line.
If the eerie correlation with Intel stock persists (and that’s a big if), perhaps it could happen sooner rather than later.